Ability Testing in the 1980's and Beyond: Some Major Trends

In: Public personnel management, Volume 18, Issue 4, p. 471-485

Abstract

This article is the complete text of the keynote address delivered at the 1989 International Personnel Management Association Assessment Council Conference, held in Orlando, Florida. In this article, Anastasi discusses the magnitude of changes in psychological testing and the rapidity of their development. She described trends taking place in three categories: the role of the test user, technical methodology of test construction, and substantive interpretation of test scores. The focus on the test user emphasizes efforts to correct the misuses of tests by unqualified persons in education, industry, clinical practice, and other applied settings. Anastasi reviews the importance of test users having knowledge about the statistical properties of test scores, the psychological characteristics of the behavior assessed, and confirmatory data from other sources, in order to make an adequately informed sustantive interpretation of test scores. The increasing emphasis on qualified test users has in no way diminished the concern for psychometrically sound instruments. Anastasi outlines approaches to the development of valid tests through multiple procedures, which are employed sequentially, at different stages of test construction. Several examples describe special techniques for local validation purposes. The contribution of validity generalization, item response theory, and adaptive testing are reviewed. Subjective interpretation of test scores requires knowledge about the behavior domain assessed by the test. Many current misuses and misinterpretations of test scores result from erroneous or outdated knowledge about human behavior. Proper interpretation of test scores are examined in relation to real-life contexts—both past and present—within the framework of cultural diversity.